IMGDAL, Morocco—Rescuers raced against time on Sept. 11 to find survivors in the rubble more than 48 hours after Morocco’s deadliest earthquake in more than six decades, with more than 2,800 killed in a disaster that devastated villages in the High Atlas Mountains.
Search teams from Spain, the UK, and Qatar were joining efforts to find survivors of the 6.8 magnitude quake that struck late on Sept. 8 about 45 miles southwest of Marrakech.
Many survivors—their homes destroyed or rendered unsafe—spent a third night outside. The death toll has climbed to 2,862, with 2,562 people injured, the state news agency reported on Sept. 11.
Authorities haven’t issued any estimates for the number of missing because much of the quake zone is in hard-to-reach areas.
In Imgdal, a village about 47 miles south of Marrakech, women and children huddled under makeshift tents set up along the road and next to damaged buildings. Some gathered around an open fire. Further south, a car stood crushed by boulders that had fallen from the cliff.
In the village of Tafeghaghte, Hamid ben Henna described how his 8-year-old son died under wreckage after he had gone to fetch a knife from the kitchen to cut a melon as the family were having their evening meal. The rest of the family survived.
Roads blocked or obstructed by dislodged rocks have made it harder to access the hardest-hit locations.
On a road near the town of Adassil, not far from the epicenter, rescue worker Ayman Koait was trying to clear rockfalls that were blocking traffic.
“There are worse roads further up that are still blocked, and we’re trying to open them, too,” he said, as vans loaded with aid squeezed along a narrow cleared track.
People were salvaging possessions from the ruins of their homes, with some describing desperate scenes as they dug with their bare hands to find relatives.
Many structures crumbled easily. Among them were the ubiquitous, traditional mud-brick, stone, and rough wood houses, one of the picturesque features that have made the High Atlas a magnet for tourists for generations.
“It’s difficult to pull people out alive because most of the walls and ceilings turned to earthen rubble when they fell, burying whoever was inside without leaving air space,” said a military worker, who asked to not be named because of army rules.
The harm done to Morocco’s cultural heritage has been emerging gradually. Buildings in the Marrakech old city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were damaged. The quake also reportedly did major damage to the historically significant 12th-century Tinmel mosque in a remote mountain area closer to the epicenter.
It was the North African country’s deadliest earthquake since 1960—when a temblor was estimated to have killed at least 12,000 people—and the most powerful earthquake since at least 1900, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Aid Comes in
Survivors struggling to find shelter and supplies have voiced criticism of what they’ve described as an initially slow government response.Morocco has deployed the army and has said it’s reinforcing search-and-rescue teams, providing drinking water, and distributing food, tents, and blankets.
Neither King Mohammed VI nor Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch has addressed the nation since the disaster.
In a televised statement on Sept. 10, government spokesperson Mustapha Baytas said every effort was being made on the ground.
He said that the king had instructed the prime minister to meet on Sept. 11 with a ministerial committee that’s developing emergency plans, including for home reconstruction.
Morocco had accepted offers of aid from Spain, Qatar, the UK, and the United Arab Emirates.
State TV said the government had assessed aid needs and considered the importance of coordinating relief efforts before accepting help, and that it might accept relief offers from other countries and would work to coordinate them, if needed.
Spain and the UK had sent search-and-rescue specialists with detection dogs, while Qatar said on Sept. 10 that its search-and-rescue team had departed for Morocco.
The European Union said it was releasing an initial 1 million euros ($1.07 million) to nongovernmental aid organizations already in Morocco, and was in contact with the Moroccan authorities to offer full EU civil protection assistance, should it require it.
Both France and Germany played down the significance of Morocco not immediately taking them up on their offers of aid.
Germany said on Sept. 11 that it saw no indication that Morocco’s decision was political as it knew from its own experience with deadly flooding in 2021 that aid coordination was important to avoid rescuers impeding each other.
France said on Sept. 10 that it stood ready to help whenever Morocco made a formal request, and any controversy on the issue was “misplaced.”
France and Morocco have had a difficult relationship in recent years, notably over the issue of Western Sahara, a disputed territory that Morocco wants France to recognize as Moroccan. Morocco hasn’t had an ambassador in Paris since January.
